The courts will see the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners (ALDRAP) in action once more. The foremost Legislative Advocacy Group has concluded plans to sue the National Assembly over 40 legislators concurrently serving as legislators at the ECOWAS Parliament and the Pan-African Parliament, respectively.
The Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners (ALDRAP) has served a pre-action notice to the offices of the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives, respectively.
The purpose of the lawsuit is to seek the court of law to determine whether the recent inauguration of 40 legislators of the National Assembly as legislators at the ECOWAS Parliament and the Pan-African Parliament, respectively, is not a violation of Section 68(1)(a) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution. That section states that any member of the National Assembly would automatically vacate his or her seat as soon as such a person becomes a member of another legislative house.
The Association-ALDRAP is arguing that the better approach is for direct elections of the 40 Nigerian lawmakers to represent Nigeria at the ECOWAS Parliament and the Pan-African Parliament, respectively. Instead of using legislators of the National Assembly whom their constituents elected to represent their federal constituencies.
This is a landmark litigation as it seeks to provide interpretation and clarification of this important provision of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution.
The Association – ALDRAP – has brought this lawsuit in the public interest twice recently. This is consistent with the Association’s (ALDRAP) mission to educate the public on matters pertaining to legislation, legislatures, and legislative law and procedures.
Dr. Law Mefor, an Abuja-based forensic and social psychologist, is a fellow of The Abuja School of Social and Political Thought; drlawmefor@gmail.com; Twitter: @Drlawsonmefor.
